Viral metagenomics uncovers virus diversity in wild and cultivated blueberry (Vacciniumcorymbosum) .Norsazilawati Saad: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida; Ricardo Alcalá-Briseño: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida; Phil Harmon: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida; Jane Polston: Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida; James Olmstead: Department of Horticultural Science, University of Florida; James Olmstead: Driscoll's

<div>Southern highbush blueberry (interspecific hybrids<i> </i>of <i>Vaccinium</i> <i>corymbosum</i> L.) is cultivated near wild <i>V. corymbosum</i> as well as closely related species in Florida. The expansion of blueberry cultivation into new areas in Florida and deployment of new cultivars which may contain viruses can potentially increase the diversity of viruses in wild and cultivated <i>V. corymbosum</i>. In this study, viral diversity in wild and cultivated blueberries (<i>V. corymbosum</i>) was described using a metagenomic approach. RNA viromes from <i>V. corymbosum </i>plants collected from six locations (two cultivated and four wild) in north central Florida were generated by sequencing (Illumina HiSeq 2000) and analyzed using a bioinformatic analysis pipeline. <i>De novo</i> assembled contigs obtained from viromes from both commercial and wild sites produced sequences with homologies to plant virus species from a diverse range of families (<i>Amalgaviridae</i>, <i>Caulimoviridae</i>, <i>Endornaviridae, Geminiviridae, Ophioviridae, Partitiviridae, Virgaviridae</i>). <i>De novo</i> assembled contigs with homology to species in the family <i>Betaflexiviridae </i>were found in viromes only from commercial sites, while contigs with homology to species in the <i>Bromoviridae and Reoviridae</i> were found in viromes only from wild sites. Three complete viral genomes, <i>Blueberry latent virus (Amalgavirus)</i>, <i>Blueberry mosaic associated virus (Ophiovirus)</i> and a new <i>Tepovirus</i> species, were assembled <i>de novo</i> from the virome obtained from a commercial site. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that compares viral diversity in wild and cultivated blueberry using a metagenomic approach. </div>